One of the first things I did was fire off an email to them, however combine the fact that they are lazy buggers during the summer, and the slightly anti-military slant of my Tutor its been hellish getting a reply.Just seeing if I had any legal discourse should they say no.

Take a trip in to see student services mate. If you make an appointmet to see them then at least you're guaranteed their time and you'll get the University policy on it. I'd ignore your tutor's bias. They should be keeping that sh*t to themselves, they're not paid to bring their personal issues to work.

If I were you, I'd finish my degree first. There'll be plenty of time to go on tour after. Or is it a case of you just wanting to impress the chicks? You must be a right ugly f*cker if you've got to go that length to get laid in a University.

The grand strategic plan is to go regular after uni, my thinking was my CV would look a bit better with a tour under my belt.Listen mate, if the f*ckin Rohypnol doesn't work then I don't see why the suntan will!

Whilst I suppose taking a year out wouldn't do you any harm, surely you would be better off finishing your degree first? That way, you finish the thing, you finish it on time (and a year earlier than you would if you took time out for the TA) and thereby you can make it work for your Regular career sooner.

My advice and it is only my advice (as someone who has done 22 and then went into Uni), finish what you planned to do and by the date you planned to do it. If you lose the momentum, there's a danger that you may not start again and that would be a waste.

You can tour 'til your hearts content when your in. Have a good think about it mate. Talk to some of the senior bods in your TA unit. Speak to the lads in the ACIO if necessary.

Friend of mine studying at Leeds University got to suspend his studies for a year to go on a tour to Afganistan this year. The process should be the same for any other suspension of studies (financial/personal etc). The main question they asked him was whether he would be able to get back into his course after the tour since every he knew at University would have moved on.

I was in the 3rd year of my Engineering degree when I was called up for Telic 2.
I contacted the uni while I was in theatre and they did their best to send me some work while I was out there.
I managed to get back from tour a few weeks early which meant I only missed the start of the next semester by about a month and caught up quickly.
Reading between the lines though, it didn't feel like they were obliged to keep my place open.
Billy

Ditto - trust me it's damn hard to come back to uni and to studying after spending a year away from it running around doing fun stuff.

Plus if you do a tour we both know you'll just end up the most hated person in your intake to RMAS because you'll be constantly boring people with your stories and opinions on how it's done in theatre!